Friday, October 28, 2016

As I will be out this weekend for Halloween, I made sure to update early this week. I revised the level I added last week, and added a new level on top of that one. I'm still not happy with the level I revised, since it actually is just sort of a worse version of a level I've already done:

Both levels require you to bounce off of an enemy's shield into a boost plate in order to clear yellow goals, then has you using those boost plates to clear the enemies. The above level actually does this a lot more elegantly than the bottom, newer level. So I'll be working on revising that level again.

I did find myself enjoying the pattern of three kill walls arranged in the center of the level though. I had an idea for a really simple level where you just slalom through a series of linked nodes, and it's actually pretty satisfying to solve. These dexterity puzzles are a nice contrast to the other levels, which are almost all timing-based.

As always, the charging-up noise is by Javier Zumer. I use and modify it under this license.

Sunday, October 23, 2016

I didn't add much this week, but I did improve how warp walls work and, by extension, how guidelines work. Last week's final level made me realize that guidelines don't show an accurate path when going through wrap walls (the blue ones) at an extreme angle. This lead me to realize that I'm wrapping from the player's current position, not from the position they will be at when they hit the warp wall. I fixed that, so now wraps should be more intuitive than they used to be.

It at least makes the final level (or what used to be the final level) a bit easier. I played with extending the length of the guideline, but in most cases the current max is the right amount. I might still extend it for specific levels, like the one above, but I also like that there can be levels where you have to dead reckon where you will end up.

I also began work on a new level. I don't like where it is right now, but I wanted to have *something* new for the blog post this week, so enjoy.

As always, charging-up noise is by Javier Zumer. I'm using and modifying it under this license.

Sunday, October 9, 2016

So I basically tore up one of the levels I was least satisfied with, and built a new one that extended some of the ideas in another level I wasn't satisfied with. It took me more time than I'm comfortable admitting to do this, but most of that was trying to make the old level bend over backwards to work right until I basically scrapped it entirely and did something new.

I believe the only pieces of this level that were in the old version are the moving, flippable bounce walls and the switch that flips them. The enemy in the center was never really that compelling, and I always wanted to do something interesting with shooting around the level using the bounce walls. So I deleted the enemy and added bounce walls and warp walls that need to be navigated all at once to engage every linked node simultaneously. It's still a bit unwieldy, but I'm much happier with this level than with the previous.

Charging up noise is, as always, by Javier Zumer. I'm using it and modifying it under this license.

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Sorry for not updating last week! I've not been particularly on the ball about devoting more time to the blog. I'm still fussing with new ideas for levels, and I'm not exactly sure where I'm going with some of them. There have also been an unusually high number of events going on lately.

Today I added hexagonal columns to the game. They function just as walls do, can be timed, can be turned off/on, and come in default, warp, wrap, and bounce varieties. I also added a script that simply causes things to rotate. Rotating hexagonal columns present a timing puzzle to the player, since you have to wait for the right moment to hit the column at the correct angle.

The column will move between the time that you begin your charge and the time that you hit the column, so you'll have to anticipate where the column will be before you begin your charge.

I still want to tweak these most recent levels a lot - some of them are not quite where I want them to be. I think I might need to use more boost plates.

As always, charging-up noise is by Javier Zumer. I'm using it and modifying it under this license.